THIS IS A SHANNON AWARD PROVIDING PARTIAL SUPPORT FOR THE RESEARCH PROJECTS THAT FALL SHORT OF THE ASSIGNED INSTITUTE'S FUNDING RANGE BUT ARE IN THE MARGIN OF EXCELLENCE. THE SHANNON AWARD IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE SUPPORT TO TEST THE FEASIBILITY OF THE APPROACH; DEVELOP FURTHER TESTS AND REFINE RESEARCH TECHNIQUES; PERFORM SECONDARY ANALYSIS OF AVAILABLE DATA SETS; OR CONDUCT DISCRETE PROJECTS THAT CAN DEMONSTRATE THE PI'S RESEARCH CAPABILITIES OR LEAD ADDITIONAL WEIGHT TO AN ALREADY MERITORIOUS APPLICATION. THE APPLICATION BELOW IS TAKEN FROM THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT SUBMITTED BY THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR. The purpose of the proposed research is to determine the time of the origin of the population genetic structure that occurs in human genetic variation. Recent studies have shown that much of the genetic variation that occurs among nuclear genes in human populations arose in the time period between 2,000,000 and 500,000 years ago. Variation of this age is not found in mitochondria, and traditional allele based methods for the study of nuclear genes are not well suited to questions on the timing of ancient population stricture. The proposed research will fill a gap that exists in the current database between mitochondrial DNA sequence studies and nuclear gene allelic studies. Under the proposed research, comparative DNA sequence data will be collected from 30 individuals for each of four genetic loci. These data can be used to determine how much of the current population structure arose prior to 200,000 years ago. This information is central to current debates on the origins of modern humans. The comparative DNA sequence data can also be used to establish a baseline for the future study of loci associated with adaptations during the past 2,000,000 years. In that time, humans have undergone considerable morphological evolution. The prediction is that loci associated with morphological adaptations will reveal different patterns of variation as a result of genetic hitchhiking of advantageous mutations. The proposed research will assess the capacity to detect genetic hitchhiking by focusing on a random selected set of loci. This knowledge can be used for later study of loci that are candidates for adaptations associated with the transition to modern H. sapiens